Donning their sharp new orange and blue striped uniforms, the
No. 2 regional seed Florida Gator soccer team (18-4-1, 11-2 SEC) defeated the
Florida Gulf Coast Eagles (14-4-3, 7-1-1 A-Sun) in NCAA Championship opening
round play. The win provided Florida’s Becky Burleigh the 400th win of her
coaching career. With the 3 p.m. start time at the James G. Pressly Stadium, it
was the first match of the entire NCAA Championship as others would be played
later Friday night.

Coming off last Sunday’s 3-0 win over Auburn to claim its 10th
Southeastern Conference Tournament title, Florida shutout their opponent not
only in goals, but defensively the Gators overpowered the Eagles. The Eagles,
who won their conference tournament title against Mercer last week, recorded
zero shots to Florida’s 19.

“The
main objective was to win and advance and that’s what we did,” Burleigh said.
“I was pleased with our ability to keep them off the board in terms of shots
and opportunities. I thought we were a bit unlucky not to score more than two.
We kept possession for long stretches of the game so there’s not more we could
really ask for.”

The Gators’ first score came in the middle of the first half
from a give-and-go between Erika Tymrak and Adriana Leon with Tymrak pushing
her season goals lead to nine. It started when Tymrak passed the ball off to
Leon at the top of the 18-yard box. Just before defenders closed in on her,
Leon back-heeled the ball to an open Tymrak who then slammed the ball in the
top right corner of the net past the reach of FGCU goalkeeper Brittany Brown at
21:10.

“I
was dribbling the ball and I saw Dri [Adriana Leon] at the top of the box and I
played it to her,” Tymrak said. “And Becky [Burleigh] always gets on us about
continuing our run and so I kept on running and Dri gave me a heal pass that,
as Alan [Kirkup, UF Assistant Coach] would say, is on another level. It was
incredible what she did.”

The Gators took seven shots in the first half but could only
turn one into a goal.

“I think the most important thing is that we are getting the
chances,” Tymrak said. “I think that finishing them will eventually come but
that we’re getting the chances is huge for our team.”

Florida took 12 shots in the second half and added another goal.
The Gators’ attempts were repeatedly cut off by goalkeeper Brown of FGCU who
recorded nine saves in the match, a career high for the freshman.

“Defensively
Brownie [Brittany Brown] kept us in the game,” said FGCU head coach Jim
Blakenship. “She stood on her head for us.”

With only 14 minutes to go in the match, Annie Speese made the
final score to seal the Gators’ first-round victory. Havana Solaun pushed the
ball out wide right to Tymrak who was about eight yards out when she crossed
the ball to the feet of Speese after Solaun, continuing her run, dummied the
ball off to her. Speese then roofed the ball to the middle of the goal, which
made it her sixth score of her sophomore season.

“At halftime Becky talked to us about putting the crosses in the
box and just driving them in. Then it was on the people making the runs if we
didn’t get there,” Speese said. “Erika did a great job of playing it. She ran
down the endline and the defenders were checking back with her so I found the
gap back at the penalty kick spot and I kind of screamed for her and she heard
me. Havana [Solaun] was there too but I called her off and just hit it and got
kind of lucky.

“It was good to get one out of the many that I missed,” she said
with a chuckle.

At the 26th minute of the match, redshirt senior defender Kathryn
Williamson entered the game for the first time since Sept. 2 when she tore her
right meniscus against Florida International.

“I
was a little nervous,” Williamson said. “It’s been quite some time, but it was
great to have some minutes today.”

The All-American’s first appearance in the game created some
emotions for her teammates.

“I
almost started tearing up actually,” Tymrak said. “I’ve played with Kat
[Williamson] the last four years and it’s been a long season without her and
that fact that she’s back, it feels so good.”

The Gators will either face Miami (FLA) (9-7-3, 4-4-2 ACC) or
UCF (17-4-1, 8-3-0 Conference USA) next Friday in NCAA Second Round action. The
Gators beat the Knights in preseason play 2-0 back in August while they
suffered their first loss of the 2012 season to the Hurricanes 4-1. Times and
site will be announced by the NCAA later this weekend.